Just Offering
by Missmishka
Summary: Dale is a true friend and a true friend always offers a hand when they see a friend in need!  Post 2x07 humor.  Set in a future I envision in my "Moving On" series, but stands alone.  Someone *had* to write this, right? 2/2 COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

The whole cast wants a piece of the action and I have got to say, my Dale muses are kind of wicked. I think I like them….

**_Just Offering, by MissMishka_**

DISCLAIMER: The usual warnings, I claim no ownership of these characters, they are simply borrowed with love and adoration from the original creators to have their stories embellished on a little more than the show may do. Not for any profit.

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><p>Dale looks up as T-Dog climbs up the ladder to join him on the roof of the RV. Knowing it was more that the younger man just needed a place to be than wanting to help keep watch, Dale just gives his friend a nod of greeting. The nod he gets in return is terse and the older man frowns with concern at the tenseness in that big body.<p>

Before he can ask what was wrong, he hears it.

The thumps below them of two bodies rolling off the bed and hitting the camper's floor…again, followed by twin bursts of laughter, one awkward, the other a rowdy shout of encouragement. He can easily picture Glenn's red face as the kid realizes there was no way the whole camp wasn't hearing them…again. Maggie's laugh was cut off and Dale didn't let his thoughts wonder to how Glenn was silencing her.

Despite the man's angry air, he knew T-Dog didn't begrudge the pair of their enjoyment of the flesh. In times such as these, people _needed _people. The Grimes' had been reunited, but Dale doubted there was much enjoyment of the flesh being found in that tent. The group elder didn't even want to think of Andrea off with Shane and instead found comfort in knowing that Carol did not sleep in the darkness alone as he contemplated the pairings in their group.

Daryl was remarkably discreet about it, which surprised Dale more than the match, the redneck slipping into the grieving mother's shelter only after the others went to sleep and exiting with the rising sun. If he hadn't seen it happen each night for the past week, Dale would never have believed they were together. There was never a telltale noise or rustle from within that tent to betray what happened on those nights, but having known the contentment of a good woman's loving, the old man knew that it Mr. Dixon was finding some in that small space with Carol. He knew, though, that none in the group would hear any intimate details from the gruff woodsman and his admiration for Daryl grew daily.

T-Dog's restless shifting on the roof as he searched out a cigarette drew Dale from those particular musings. There was a frustration in being one of the only ones without any possible partner to find relief with, he knew, and while Dale was old enough not to be bothered, the black man was young and robust.

There was only so much comfort to be found in your own hand.

A now familiar moan followed quickly by grunts of completion from below them earned a dark eyed glare from the black man, who mumbled angry and incoherent while lighting his cigarette. As his friend settled down to smoke, Dale didn't miss the hand that adjusted the front of the young man's pants as he tried to find a comfortable position for his not so little problem. This was the fourth night in a row that some variation of this scene had played out and Dale thought it only his duty as a brother in arms to finally make the offer.

"You know," he began without any bashfulness, given his age and experiences in this world, "I could help you with that."

His more serious musings of a moment before were replaced with genuine amusement as he watched the unintended consequences of his, he thought, generous invitation.

The big guy's body froze in mid-inhalation of smoke as his dark eyes widened in disbelief at what his ears had heard. The burn in his lungs set the man to convulsing with coughs to expel the acrid vapors after a minute of complete stillness and T-Dog quickly snuffed out the cigarette while getting a hold of himself. He turned his head to look at Dale in shock, clearly questioning whether he had heard what he'd heard.

"Just a helping hand, if nothing else," Dale said helpfully to confirm that there was nothing wrong with the young man's ears, knowing the words only added to the growing panic in those dark eyes. His friend continued to sit unmoving, jaw going slack as he stared at the old man, who smiled with the amusement he suddenly felt and allowed his gaze to drop to T-Dog's lap.

That got the big body moving.

"No…" T-Dog said slowly, rising with caution and beginning to creep toward the ladder. "No, man. I'm good."

Dale bit back a laugh as the other man barely managed to catch himself from a backward tumble to the ground when his sneakers caught on the lip of the roof.

"Just thought I'd offer," he called out, laughing openly after his fleeing friend.

_That should change the script for tomorrow,_ he thought, oddly pleased with himself, all things considered.


	2. Chapter 2

It didn't take T-Dog long to catch on to what he figured Dale had been doing with his offer. As a distraction, it had been pretty damned effective and he had to laugh both at his reaction and the absurdity of the offer.

"'Just a helping hand,'" he scoffed aloud at the memory as he stopped his pacing the camp and expelled a relieved breath as he accepted that the other man had to have been joking.

_He wasn't homophobic_, he told himself, _the whole man on man thing just wasn't for him_.

Even if it was the end of the world and they were the last two uninvolved people kind of left.

_Maybe_, he thought as he stepped into the RV to bed down for the night, _there'd be a sweet young thing for him to pick up wherever they went next._

He couldn't help casting a somewhat wistful gaze back to the sleeper section where he knew Glenn was likely snuggling up against Maggie, the pair tending to allow themselves just a single go each night before sleep. He had thought to maybe find that kind of connection with Jacqui, but she had opted for a path he was even less likely to take than finding comfort with another man. Suicide or 'opting out' just wasn't in him and his still breathing was a testament to that.

As he awkwardly placed his large frame on the small bed he claimed each night, he pulled his thoughts from those dark memories and focused on the distraction Dale had given him. Head still shaking with how easily he'd fallen for the obvious joke, he went to bed trying to figure out how to get the old man back.

It took a few days, but inspiration finally struck after seeing the concern with which Dale's eyes followed Andrea through the camp. One of these days he'd work on getting the guy to confide in him what was up with all of that, but for now it gave T-Dog the idea he'd needed.

Dale's surprise when T-Dog approached him wasn't really a surprise. He'd been skittish around his old friend, to say the least, because joke or not that moment on the camper had been weird.

The day was winding down, everyone else going through their motions in preparing the camp for dinner and sleep. He had the man to himself and used his large frame to block off any exit as he caught the man alone in the RV. His goal wasn't to be threatening, but he guess he maybe got that part wrong given how the old man's eyes widened and he stumbled backward in something like self-defense.

"I've been thinking," he began softly, trying forcibly to relax to a casual, approachable stance as Dale plunked down to sit at the kitchenette table. "'bout what you said."

The blank stare he was getting made him falter for a moment. "You know," he urged, gesturing with his hand in a way that would later make him cringe, "helping a brother out?"

He watched understanding dawn and the other man's relief at realizing he wasn't about to get a beat down was almost funny. He didn't want the man relaxing, though, so T-Dog began to press his advantage, moving to crowd the man back in his seat.

"Caught Andrea and Shane going at it," he confided all quiet like as he started his tale. "All that soft white skin," he paused to close his eyes and inhale heatedly, as if remembering a glimpse of the blonde naked. "So I got to thinking," he popped open his gaze to see if the other man was still with him. "I could pretend, right?"

"Right," Dale replied slowly, giving the response he seemed to think T-Dog demanded.

He had to look away from the old man's shocked gaze or else he'd bust a gut, so he turned his head as if to survey the empty space they were in.

"So…how about now?"

"Now?" Dale gulped audibly and T-Dog turned back just in time to see the older man seeming to be trying subtly to burrow through the side of the RV.

He straightened to cast his dark eyes around the camper again and let that be his silently issued challenge of "_Why not?_"

"But…you're not..um," Dale's gaze was equally speaking as it dropped to the zip of T-Dog's pants, which showed no tenting whatsoever.

Busted on that point, but hoping to salvage his 'prank,' he switched tactics.

"Tonight, then," he leant back over the sitting man. "On the roof again. I should be plenty…um," he grunted softly and glanced tellingly at his own crotch, almost laughing when Dale's eyes seemed to helplessly follow. "After listening to some more of Glenn and Maggie."

His friend was clearly stymied and T-Dog felt his job was done. He gave himself a few minutes to watch with satisfaction as the other man floundered for some kind of response. Wanting to laugh, he instead clapped Dale on the shoulder, gave him what he hoped was a suggestive wink and turned to leave the trailer. His bubble of merriment burst with some apprehension, though, when the man finally found some words to speak.

"What time?"

T-Dog's feet tangled hopelessly and he fell from the RV in shock that the man had gotten the better of him again.


End file.
